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Thursday, January 15, 2015

DIY ~ Healthy Almond Milk ( on the cheap!)

When it comes to dairy we buy only organic, which can be very expensive. I like to use almond milk for things like smoothies, some baking and some of my soups. But organic almond milk can be expensive as well. My solution is to make my own almond milk!

I have tried several recipes. Some of them just did not taste very good. In others I could not justify the cost. Then I stumbled upon a recipe that was pretty good and made the cost to make it was great. After some "tweaking" ...oh my. I love it!

The recipe is simple but you will need to do some planning. But it truly is worth it!

Healthy Almond Milk on the Cheap!

Ingredients

1 & 1/2 cups of almonds

1 gallon of water ( purified if you can)

1 whole vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

3 large pitted dates

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Optional - Sweetener to taste ( raw honey or molasses is my favorite)

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Directions
1. Place almonds in a bowl and cover with water. Let soak overnight.
2. Rinse and drain the almonds. Place almonds in the blender
3. Add the 1/2 the vanilla and dates.
4. Add as much of the water as your blender can handle.
5. Blend on highest speed for a few minutes.
6. Strain into container. I use a nut milk bag (you can use a clean unused paint strainer or cheese cloth )
7. Be sure and squeeze out all of the "milk" that you can
8. Place the ground nuts that are in the straining bag BACK INTO the blender. You are using them again
9. Add remaining vanilla, dates and water.
10. Blend and repeat straining process.
11. Take the strained milk and add put back in the blender. Add cinnamon, pinch of salt and sweetener ( if you want)
9. Blend and put back in container
10 ENJOY.

If your blender is small simply divide into smaller batches to blend. You can use the left over almond meal for smoothies, add to muffins or oatmeal or even make into almond flour!